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Was a U.S. cargo jet smuggling arms to rebels in Venezuela? These flight patterns sure look weird

A video screen grab of a portion of the alleged seizure.Photo: Democracy Now/YouTube

National Post Staff

Published: February 14, 2019 - 12:38 PM

An air freight company in Greensboro, North Carolina has grounded flights to Venezuela amid suspicions its plane was being used to send arms to rebels in that country.

McClatchy has reported on a series of suspicious flights between the U.S., Venezuela and Colombia by one particular plane, and last week Venezuela’s government seized a jet it said had sent assault weapons to the troubled nation.

The seizure was made at an airport in Valencia, Venezuela’s third-biggest city, with the government saying that the arms were to be used in “terrorist actions.”

The secret cargo was found during a routine check by tax authorities and other inspectors.

“This materiel was destined for criminal groups and terrorist actions in the country, financed by the fascist extreme right and the government of the United States,” McClatchy quoted a senior government official, Bolivarian National Guard Gen. Endes Palencia Ortiz, as saying.

This materiel was destined for criminal groups and terrorist actions in the country, financed by the fascist extreme right and the government of the United States

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is undergoing the biggest crisis of his tenure, after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself president and was swiftly backed by countries around the globe, led by the U.S.

In the secret cache displayed by the Maduro government were 19 assault weapons, 118 ammunition cartridges, dozens of military radio antennas and more. Putting on a show for the cameras, the government displayed AR-15 rifles, a Micro Draco semi-automatic pistol and a Colt 7.62 rifle with telescopic sights.

The Boeing 767 seized by the government is operated by 21 Air LLC, with the regime saying it left Miami on Feb. 3.

McClatchy has found no concrete links between the aviation firm and the U.S. government, but reports that Adolfo Moreno, the firm’s chairman is connected to Gemini Air Cargo. This firm was linked to controversial prisoner transfers, known as extraordinary renditions, under George W. Bush, Barack Obama’s predecessor.

The same 21 Air plane has made “dozens” of return trips between Miami, Colombia and Venezuela since Jan. 11, McClatchy’s research shows. Often, it stayed in Miami for just a few hours, then went back south.

This included 40 round trips from Miami International Airport to Caracas and Valencia (Venezuela) and Bogota and Medellin (Colombia). Jan. 11 was just one day after Maduro was sworn in for a controversial second term in office.

The company’s flights are said to have come to an abrupt halt after McClatchy made its initial report.

Through a lawyer, 21 Air denied all involvement in any arms transfer, and said it had not even been notified of the seizure. It said its own plane had in fact been chartered by a separate company, GPS-Air.

“GPS-Air has been the only company that has chartered it for the last few weeks to Valencia, Venezuela,” the lawyer told McClatchy. GPS-Air likewise denied involvement, saying the cargo doesn’t belong to either firm, and calling its discovery a government ruse.

As he has on high-profile cases in the past, Ottawa-based ship and plane tracker Steffan Watkins was the person who initially called out the strange flight patterns, via Twitter.

🇻🇪 CIA weapons shipment destined for #Venezuela|n rebels?That's what the authorities are saying.O/C that would be completely out of character… 🙄

“All year, they were flying between Philadelphia and Miami and all over the place, but all continental U.S. Then all of a sudden in January, things changed,” he later told McClatchy.

The suspicious air drop has evoked memories of the U.S.’s troublesome Latin American history, including CIA weapons transfers to Nicaraguan Contra death squads who were fighting the leftwing Sandinista government in the 1980s.

This first came to light after the crash landing of a plane being overseen by retired CIA agent Felix Rodriguez — a plane headed from an air base in El Salvador to the Contras in Nicaragua. The ammo-loaded plane was shot down by the Sandinistas, and a U.S. crewman was captured.

Elliott Abrams, an assistant secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan, has been tasked by U.S. president Donald Trump of being his envoy to Venezuela during the current crisis.

Abrams, of course, was convicted in 1991 of withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal, in which U.S. officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran and funnelled the money to the Contras. He was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush, the late father of George W. Bush.

“CIA weapons shipment destined for #Venezuelan rebels?” Watkins tweeted wryly. “That’s what the authorities are saying. O/C (of course) that would be completely out of character.”